


Wild Times

by ClaireKat



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: 10 to 1 au, F/M, Ficlet, Gen, Part 1, Violence, original concept au, shock collar au, unprovoked assault, zootopia au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-18
Updated: 2016-03-18
Packaged: 2018-05-27 13:31:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6286615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClaireKat/pseuds/ClaireKat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zootopia. A colorful city where a variety of animals from all walks of life live together, scattered throughout the city’s 12 unique regions. But no one ever said that the animals living here do so with anything as admirable as harmony or peace. With prey outnumbering predators 10 to 1, there are strict laws in place to ensure that the unpredictable, violent predators can’t exercise their primitive, savage tendencies. In a city fueled by such unbalanced tensions, the ZPD needs special operatives like Judy Hopps working the streets, monitoring daily PID (predatory instinct deterrent) collar activity. With the help of these state of the art shock collars, prey walking the streets of Zootopia can feel safe day or night, even when they’re walking alongside unpredictable predators. The predators, on the other hand, have some differing attitudes towards the laws that have branded them with such nonnegotiable, emotionally restrictive technology. What will Officer Hopps do when she is faced with the harsh reality of just how these collars are being used to harm and manipulate valid predatory citizens, and how she’s been perpetuating the unfairness all along?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wild Times

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is inspired by the Zootopia concept art and original plot where the city was run by prey and they enforced predators and their behavior by fitting them with shock collars that would shock them when they got angry. That’s really the only canon thing I’m working with, plus the part about Zootopia including a harsh high security prison, although I’m not 100% sure how or if I’m going to work that in, besides possibly just mentioning its existence. The rest of this fic i.e. it’s plot, how Judy and Nick’s roles play out (including Nick working at Wild Times and anything that has to do with the facility) are all headcanons of my own! I hope you enjoy!!!

Officer Judy Hopps found herself struggling to focus on her job as she patrolled the seemingly calm streets of Zootopia. She found herself distracted by the most unusual things: the color of the sky as it was altered by the rays of the setting sun, the sensation of the wind in her fur passing through the cracked window of her cruiser. Judy was the kind of officer that didn’t get distracted by such superficial things; she was a dedicated cop, an officer who had graduated at the top of her class and didn’t mess around when it came to her duties. She was always hyper aware of the necessary pieces of scenery, specific details along the lines of street names, animal characteristics, and car makes, models, and colors. But for some reason, for just a few minutes, Judy found herself thinking about anything but her job.

Her period of peaceful contemplation didn’t last long, though; in a matter of seconds a nearby PID sensor set her radar ablaze. Slamming her foot on the break, she instantly shifted gears and altered her course towards the point on her radar that indicated the presence of an active PID collar. Recently it seemed like there was a decrease in PID activity all over Zootopia, and although some at the precinct would call it a blessing, Judy had a hunch that there was something darker going on behind the scenes. The drop in activity was dramatic enough to be suspicious, and Judy found herself questioning the possibility of a plot brewing, something that involved predators finding loopholes in the system. She feared that they might even be discovering ways to skirt the laws that kept them from harming the numerous prey that they coincided with in this city; and those were principles that she wouldn’t tolerate being broken or ignored.

She ditched her vehicle as she neared the site, senses heightened and focus primed as she followed her mobile GPS down the street. She did her best not to appear too urgent or hurried, cautious of the crowd around her and wanting to avoid upsetting them as she wove her way through. She kept her ears perked, wondering if and when the disruption from the rabid predator was going to reveal the scene she was reporting to; surprisingly enough, though, such a commotion never came.

Coming to a stop at the mouth of an alley, Judy realized that the signal was coming from within the depths of the shaded side street. She squinted her eyes, trying to probe the stretch visually and determine the nature of the situation before she entered; unfortunately, it seemed that there was a bend in the road that made it impossible for her to assess the situation from the mouth. She tapped her foot rapidly in agitation, slipping her GPS into its holster and trading the device for her taser. She didn’t want to have to use it, in fact part of her hated seeing the startling pain it inflicted on its victims, but sometimes painful situations called for painful repercussions.

 She dashed down the alley to the turn between the buildings, inhaling a settling breath as she turned her ears to assess what she would be dealing with before she took any rash action. She was one of the only officers that considered their actions so carefully, and she had had more than enough lectures and supplementary training that tried to drill a more snap judgement method of handling common collar violations into her head. As she waited patiently and cautiously for the perfect moment to move in, the officer found herself startled and confused by the noises she heard leaking around the corner.

Her ears twitched as she perceived the sound of timid, remorseful whimpers…noises of an animal in distress. Such haunting whines were accompanied by the cackling of some…what, could she be misperceiving things? Her confusion and curiosity only seemed to mount as the idea that a situation could play out in such a way…she stopped her rampant train of thought. She wasn’t going to let her assumptions get the best of her. The only way to understand what was really going on was to engage. Preparing herself for the worst, Judy inhaled a sharp breath, trying to quell the shock and anger that swirled viciously in her stomach. At her own internal mark, she swung around the corner with her taser primed, facing the scene; one that for once was being committed _against_ a predator rather than by one.

“Hooves in the air where I can see them!” Judy warned, her fur fluffed up a bit as a result of her unsettled inner state. Her eyes flicked between the startled rams and the victimized fox, something in her heart stirring as her eyes fell upon its battered form. She wondered if it was still conscious…then again, she had overheard its noises of distress. It was still conscious enough to suffer; hopefully there was something she could do to alleviate that.

“What’s the big idea, rabbit?” one of the rams confronted her, their aggressive tone only setting Judy more on edge. “We weren’t doing nothing wrong. This fox here started getting aggressive, and we were just trying to defend ourselves.”

“Yeah, looks like his collar’s still working,” another of the rams joined in, kicking the trembling mass with a snicker. “Gotta do regular maintanence checks on these things anyway, don’t ya? In a way, we were just doing you guys back at the ZPD a favor. Are you here to thank us?”

“Step away from the fox, all of you!” Judy commanded, stepping closer as she tightened her grip on the taser. “Step away and keep your hooves where I can see them! From what I can see, this is an unprovoked collar activation…inducing faulty collar readings is a punishable offense, as is unnecessarily diverting police attention. You aren’t doing the ZPD any favors by committing meaningless, groundless street violence. If you all don’t clear out of here right now, I’ll have no choice but to issue you all citations. And if you refuse to cooperate, I’ll be forced to take you back to the station.”

“What? Have you lost your mind, rabbit? We didn’t do anything wrong – we aren’t breaking the law by keeping this fox from going rabid! We saw him sizing up some innocent pedestrians, and we couldn’t just let him off with warning. We were just helping maintain the peace around here, keeping these predators in their place, just like you!”

“But you’re not cops, and you’re certainly not within your rights to aimlessly attack a helpless animal. Leave _now_ or I _will_ take whatever action necessary to make sure you learn your lesson. Do I make myself clear?”

“Ah fine, fine, you tight tail,” one of them sneered, patting another of their friends on the shoulder before the group shuffled past her out of the alleyway. Judy slipped her taser back into its holster, making sure the rams weren’t going to try any funny business before she approached the still quaking fox that hadn’t dared to move a muscle the whole time. She gazed at the unlucky animal, kneeling down and stretching out her paw in an attempt to show that she meant no harm. She flinched as the fox did, scrambling backwards until he found himself stuck between her and the wall. His eyes were large, surprisingly emotive considering the trend she knew of foxes sly, sneaky expressions. His green irises were stretched wide, laced with panic and pain. Judy held up both of her paws, shifting back a few paces as she kept her eyes locked with his.

“It’s all right, everything is going to be all right. I’m not here to hurt you, I’m not going to hurt you. Quite the opposite, actually. I want to see what I can do to help you. Can you tell me exactly what happened? How did you get here, and what happened between you and those rams?”

“Yeah right, as if any animal, any prey like _you_ legitimately wants to do anything to help me,” the fox responded, his claws slightly digging into the wall he braced against. “You just want to interview me to see what kind information you can get out of me, information that you’re going to use to turn around and incriminate me with. You might as well take me in right now, get the procedure out of the way so I won’t have to deal with being hunted down later. Then I can be on my merry way once I’m cleared.”

Judy gave a disgruntled huff, standing up and plopping a hand on her hip as she eyed the mouthy fox. “Excuse me, what right do you have to speak that way to the animal that just got you out of what looked like a pretty sticky jam? I’ll have you know I am a proud officer of the ZPD. I do whatever work I can for the animals of this city, work that the ZPD is proud to promote, work that advocates for the fair treatment and protection of all animals regardless of their status as predator or prey! If you feel like getting extra snarky with me maybe you should consider how quickly I can alter this PID activation report as a predator assault instead of a prey induced accident.”

“Accident? Falsifying a report? Do you even listen to yourself talk?” the fox rebuffed, recoiling as his collar triggered a momentary shock. He took a settling breath before he continued speaking, holding his body rigidly still. “You threaten me with unfair treatment after I have a little _attitude_ with you after I’ve been beaten, shocked, and bruised by animals in a situation that no animal would ever believe if they heard the truth from me. You expect me to believe that you can do anything good for me, that you even have an _inkling_ of a desire to not frame me or that you don’t view me in a bad light in response to a little snark after I’ve had a _really, really_ rough day? You need to brush up on your persuasive skills there, Carrots, especially if you’re jaded enough by the system to believe a little tough talk is the only thing you need to make a proper judgement about an animal.” 

Throughout the entirety of the fox’s rant, Judy could feel her ears slowly drooping. She clenched her paws into fists, internally berating herself as she examined the truth in his words. She was supposed to be an unbiased officer, a figure of the law that always did what was right and best by every animal, regardless of their status or station in society. Seeing so much turmoil, hearing so many of her fellow officers’ tales, bearing witness to so many of the vicious predators that were contained in the Zootopia High Security Prison…maybe she _was_ starting to be blinded by the system. Turning her ears back up, the rabbit approached the fox, stretching her hand towards his shoulder and staying still as he winced away again. Her eyes didn’t leave his as she redirected her paw, still reaching for his collar.

“I need you to trust me. Please.” She hoped that her eyes reflected the authenticity in her voice. “I’m going to see if I can disable your collar for a few minutes, at least long enough for your emotions and heart rate to calm down. As long as you’re still in a heightened emotional state, there’s the possibility that your collar could react. I’m also going to check and see if its calibrated too sensitively; some of the newer models haven’t been tested accurately, and they’ve been known to produce shocks in response to the slightest elevation of a heart beat or vibration from a growl.”

“Ha, so they issued the new ones to us without even having the courtesy to make sure they worked right? Can’t say I’m surprised,” Judy heard the fox murmur as she moved in to fix his collar. Her ears drooped slightly again, but she did her best to ignore the gnawing guilt at the edge of her mind. After locating the keypad that wasn’t accessible to the wearer, she typed in the appropriate code before rocking back on her feet. She watched as the fox slumped to the ground, finally able to relax and breathe for a moment; his fur was still slightly stiff, his erratic breathing reflecting the depth of the invisible pain that riddled his body.

“So, you got a name?” Judy finally asked after giving the fox a period to catch his breath. “If nothing else, I’m going to need to take it down for the official report.”

The fox scoffed, rolling his eyes a bit before closing them and adjusting the way he rested his head on his paws. “The name’s Wilde. Nick Wilde. You mind if I just stick to calling you Carrots? If you ask me, it’s a pretty fitting nickname for a bunny.”

Judy twitched her nose a bit, directing a glare at the fox’s eyelids. “My proper name is Hopps. Officer Hopps. I’d prefer if you’d show me the respect I was due and use my actual name.”

“But I don’t know your actual name, do I Officer?” Nick teased, swishing his tail a bit. It was clear that he was starting to feel better; that alleviated some of Judy’s worries. “I think it’s only fair, considering I told you mine.”

“I don’t have to answer to a fox,” the rabbit snuffed, pushing herself to her feet before she could get too absorbed in the conversation. There was something about the way this fox spoke, the way his words slid off his tongue…she knew that these creatures were crafty, sly, renowned for their overwhelmingly influential way with words. Although she was grateful for the quick reminder about her path, the recollection of why she had joined the force in the first place, she wasn’t about to stoop to making friends with a predator like this.

Chances were even if he wasn’t the instigator of this particular fight, it was likely he had committed a slew of other crimes throughout his life. It wasn’t about stereotyping in this case; Judy was just going off of the cold hard facts. Every predator within the city limits of Zootopia had a criminal record, no matter how large or small. The ZPD system had a file on every single one of them, and Judy also remembered the irrefutable fact that every predator had broken their PID protocol at least once.

Upon the age of adolescence every animal registered as a predator living within the twelve exotic zones that comprised Zootopia, sectors that collectively housed a decent number of animals who had all flocked to the unique city from all over the world, were fitted with an irremovable PID collar. A predatory instinct deterrent device…the council of prey animals that presided over Zootopia’s judicial system, setting the laws and making rulings about civil cases that were brought to their doors, had deemed it necessary for every predator to wear such a device. Without it, who knew when a predator’s feral instincts might be triggered and the life of a meek, helpless prey animal might fall victim to the predator’s instinctual rampage? Although the law was met with cries of outrage and confusion from the relatively small predator community, Zootopia’s council had remained rigid in their decision, and from then on the ZPD had been tasked with the job of monitoring these devices that had been deemed a necessity – at least within city limits.

Any kind of tampering with the collars, attempts made to tinker with the keypad without a ZPD employee access code, an override code, or any endeavors made to break or remove the collar in any way would almost certainly guarantee a comatose situation for the predator who had taken such a risk, if not death. For most of the predators in the city, that risk simply wasn’t enough to outweigh the cost of just putting up with the collar and its often debilitating effects. Any indication of abnormally increased heart rate, breathing rate, or aggressively emotive stimulation would result in a shock being issued from the collar to the predator’s entire nervous system. If the predators physical or emotive state did not return within the boundaries of the determined safe zone, the shocks would only grow more intense until they triggered a system shut down.

Sometimes, Judy considered how miserable it must be for a young animal, regardless of their heritage, to be forced to submit to wearing such a heinous, gaudy device. But then again, the rabbit also reminded herself of the numerous predatory attacks that occurred throughout the city before the instatement of such a law. There was no doubt in her mind that the devices had decreased the number of prey animals that had fallen victim to predators and their ferocious tendencies, as well as how the collars had sparked a successful, observable decrease in all types of crime committed by predators.

Being an esteemed officer of the ZPD, Judy had mixed feelings about the prey/predator situation as it stood now. At times she found herself able to sympathize with the plight of a select few predators, those that truly seemed to experience unjust treatment, or perhaps just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Aside from these few rare occasions, Judy found such precautions not only useful, but observably helpful. Even if some predators argued that the treatment they were receiving was unwarranted, unfair, and cruel, Judy could think of multiple documented cases where prey animals had been treated in such a way by predators, time and time again. Predators were well known, even expected at times, to be driven by some unshakeable, unsightly instinctual urge nestled deep within them. If they couldn’t overcome it themselves, and innocent animals’ lives were at stake, how could they argue that taking on a little harm themselves wasn’t worth the lives that were being saved?

Pushing all of those complicated thoughts to the side, Judy slipped the notepad off her waist and popped out a pen to write with. “Alright, like I said before, I’m going to need to interview you for this report, Mr. Wilde. Can you tell me what led up to the incident with the rams, what kind of exchange took place before you ended up here?”

“Are you not going to track down the actual criminals, try and catch up to them before they slip away for good? I mean, they’re the ones you really need to be analyzing, considering they’re the ones that actually committed a crime here,” Nick replied, rolling onto his back and stretching idly; there was no way those shocks hadn’t wound every one of his muscles tighter than a spring.

Judy flinched slightly, mentally smacking herself again as she realized he was right…no, he couldn’t have been! There was no way that this fox hadn’t done _anything_ to incite such malicious action from the rams. Every action had a cause, and in this case Judy was sure that the fox had been bothering them one way or another. Surely he had said or done something to get on their bad side; she couldn’t recall a case involving a predatory victim where the predator hadn’t ultimately been determined as the guilty party. Then again, a doubt in the back of her mind questioned just how accurate a lot of those reports were, considering the rams had stated that they thought they were just doing the ZPD a favor by torturing this…innocent fox? Could she actually be trying to convince herself that this fox was completely innocent? What was happening to her?

“Look, wise guy, you’re the one I’m interviewing and that’s that,” she replied bluntly, tapping her pen against the pad. “Now start talking. How did you come to find yourself in this alley cornered by those rams? Or better yet, were you the one that led them back here, intending on dragging them into some predatory trap, when they got the drop on you?”

“Are you kidding me? I just told you it _wasn’t my fault._ None of it was!” the fox interrupted, standing up and throwing his paws in the air in exasperation. “Those pesky pasture purveyors shoved me into this alleyway as I was strolling by, minding my own business! I tried to get them to let me go, asked them what in the world they wanted with me, and they just told me they were going to make sure my collar was functioning properly.

 “They started ramming with their horns, beating me against the walls to try to get a rise out of me. I did what I could to ignore them, tried to dodge their barrage and slip away, but they weren’t having any of it. At one point they even pulled me back by the tail,” he admitted, and Judy noticed him wring his paws in discomfort. It appeared that his claws were chipped and maybe even still bleeding a bit from where he had dug them into the ground. She glanced down for a moment, recoiling off of the shallow claw marks that shined as a testament to his grim account. Her ears drooped reflexively.

But the fox wasn’t done pleading his case. “What was I supposed to do, go limp and endure it until I got lucky enough to pass out or something? I may be a predator but I’m not a quitter, I wasn’t just going to let them have their way. Before I could tell them to back off, show them what for, my collar started going off…I wasn’t going to attack them! But who _wouldn’t_ get angry in that kind of a situation, huh? That was their plan all along, _their_ plan! I was cornered!”

Judy could hear the desperation in his voice, see the desolation in his dimming green eyes. He was no longer the confident fox that had just sassed her, called her out on her conduct as an officer and a prey animal; no, the fox that she was facing now was the same one that had been curled up on the concrete only a few moments before. Her paws shook a bit as she finished recording the broken words that had just spilled from his mouth, her eyes returning to him as she watched the realization that he had just played into her paws slowly sink in.

“I’m out of here,” the words that dropped from his mouth now were like bricks, complete with all the dust and weight that typically accompanied them. “Hope that little spiel is sufficient for your precious report, _Officer.”_

“M – Mr. Wilde, wait! Please!” Judy called after him, shoving the pad and pen back into her belt as she raced after him.

Although she swore she had seen him strolling past her at a slow, arguably lazy speed, the fox disappeared from the alleyway into the crowd that occupied the sidewalk with alarming speed and ease. As she too made it to the street, Judy glanced from her cruiser to the fox’s barely distinguishable ears, which like him were quickly vanishing within the flow of the crowd. She decided that at this point, she couldn’t abandon a cause, the cause of discovering what more this fox had to say, what more he could reveal to her about the unfortunate happenings in this city that she had apparently become completely complacent to.

She made sure the doors on the vehicle were locked before shifting to bobbing and weaving through the crowd, locating the fox again with fortunate ease. She trailed him all the way back to a building she could only assume was his home, or perhaps it was more apt to call it a hideaway? It certainly didn’t look to her like the typical place one would call home sweet home, but then again, allegedly there was a lot about Zootopia’s predators and their true lifestyles that she was completely blind to.

She waited for him to open the door to the battered looking facility, noting the ostentatious sign settled on the roof of the location broadcasting the words “Wild Times.” The name rung a bell in her mind, bringing with it a slew of forgotten rumors that had been circulating within the predatory circles of the city. She tried to make sense of them now, recalling something about a shady attraction that was advertised as a place where predators could exercise their vicious, visceral instincts. Her heart sped up a bit, and she raced to stop the door with her foot before it could close behind the fox.

Perhaps this little incident could turn into a lead that would end with the shut down and demolition of such a filthy place. Honestly, what was it about predators that made them think they were entitled to such cruel, demeaning actions? How could they not see how much good organizations like the ZPD had done, protecting prey animals from any unexpected attacks while still enabling predators to walk free and unrestrained? Then again…if only a minor episode of rage was enough to damn a predator to a frenzy of shocks that only complicated the situation and trapped them in an unmanageable loop of pain, were they really as free as Judy had assumed? She shook the badgering thoughts out of her head, preparing to enter the building now that it appeared the fox had disappeared out of sight. However, the next moment she found herself suddenly yanked through the doorway, tossed to the floor like she was nothing more than a simple ragdoll.

“What are you doing here, Carrots?” the fox sneered, although the absence of light within made it impossible for Judy to make anything out. She scrambled for her gun, the fox’s bright green eyes suddenly emerging through the darkness that blanketed the building’s interior. “Why the hell did you follow me back here? I gave you the information you wanted.”

“N – No, stay where you are!” she gulped, trying to get to her feet and keep her eyes on the fox. She bumped against a couple hard surfaces, the sounds of disrupted objects falling past her, some invisibly brushing against her, only setting her more on edge.

“No, you stay where _you_ are,” the fox replied, his tone much calmer than she expected. She kept her gun cocked, barely managing to avoid pulling the trigger as light suddenly replaced the blackness that had disrupted her vision. The fox had his back turned to her, appearing busy as he messed around with some switches and knobs on a console she couldn’t get a good look at from where she stood. She slid her gun back into its holster, taking a moment to gaze around the impressive set up before finally breaking the silence.

“So what…is this place?”

“It’s really none of _your_ business, prey,” the fox scoffed, ruffling the fur at the back of his neck before turning to face her. “And I’m not really in the mood to share anything else with you, other than the information you hustled out of me back in the alleyway. I don’t appreciate being bested at my own game.”

Judy smirked slightly, although her feeling of triumph was only momentary. “Well, regardless of whether you want to tell me or not, you drug me in here. So you aren’t opposed enough to keep me from seeing any of this at all. Think you might be starting to trust me a little?”

“Trust you? As if,” he scoffed, taking a seat on one of the console chairs before taking a swig of a soda that appeared to already be resting by one of the many monitors. “I just didn’t want you skulking around outside, getting yourself hurt, or worse, caught by some of the predators that spend their time down here. If they saw a lone cop wandering around, and a rabbit at that, I can’t guarantee that you’d be making it back to the station tonight in one piece.”

Judy felt a shiver jolt through her fur, the innate distrust and aversion to predators that guided many of her actions reminding her of just how dangerous they could really be. And here she was, in a facility built for predators, by predators, for who know what heinous purpose…alone with one of them. It was a good thing she still had her gun.

“But, I suppose you’re right,” the fox started again as he tinkered with more nobs on the console. “If you must know this is my home. A facility that I run, repurposed from an old abandoned warehouse. A safe haven for predators across Zootopia.”

“That sounds…charming?” the rabbit teased, feeling another uncomfortable tremor zip down her spine. “You sure you want to go into detail about something like this to an officer of the ZPD?”

“I gave it some thought, but you know what, you’re right,” he replied. “I brought you in here, against my better judgement. Me, Nick Wilde, protecting a prey animal. And a cop at that. I never thought I’d see the day.”

He spun away from the monitors to face her, resting a paw on his knee. “But then again, even if it was in a really roundabout way, you did help me out earlier. And you were interested and determined enough to follow me here. And you haven’t alerted your buddies back at the precinct yet. So, yeah, maybe I am starting to trust you. But only a little bit.” He gave a halfhearted smile before gesturing for her to take the seat next to him. “At least you seem to take the time to listen. Maybe you’re starting to moderately understand the error of your ways,” he added. The timid rabbit approached cautiously, but heeded his offer to join him, caught up in both a personal and professional curiosity.

 “The real facility is downstairs. Constructed and concealed under street level, surrounded by concrete walls that partially jam the collar signals,” he explained, pulling at his own mechanical brace. “Not because they get violent or anything down there – nothing like that. This place just promotes…a temporary reprieve. It’s a refuge where if someone gets in an argument, or wants to vent about their day, or maybe get into a playful tussle or two with a fellow predator, they won’t do so weighed down with the fear and anxiety of knowing what’s sure to follow.”

Judy tightly clutched the soda he had handed her in the midst of their discussion, setting the bottle down before sliding out of her chair. Nick watched her with confusion, a realization dawning on him; he really had said too much. She was going to take this information and him back with her to the ZPD. She was going to have this place shut down, she was going to exterminate the one bastion of peace and normalcy that predators could find in this forsaken city. He tried to move fast, but he wasn’t fast enough to dodge her paws as she lunged at him, locking them around his throat.

“Whoa, hey, hey, what did I say, what did I do?”

His eyes frantic with fear, Nick tried to shimmy out of the rabbit’s grip, but she wasn’t budging. The two rolled to the floor, and he did his best not to squish her, knowing that she certainly wouldn’t be in the mood for offering any mercy after a move like that. He tried to keep his emotions under control, taking some deep breaths to lower his heart rate and freezing as he heard the unusual clunk of metal hitting the ground. His neck was suddenly light, surprisingly expansive, and he took a few more deep breaths to validate the unfamiliar sensation.

“What did you…?”

“I took it off!” Judy exclaimed before Nick could get another word in, kicking the infernal contraption across the floor. “I took that stupid thing off of you, Nick! I…I just…I can’t believe I’ve been so foolish, so ignorant. To think that predators have been suffering this way all this time. I’m so sorry, Nick…I’m so sorry to all of you, especially as a member of an organization that’s supposed to _protect_ you…”

“I can’t believe it.”

“What?”

Before she knew it, Judy suddenly found herself enveloped in a flurry of fur. She struggled to breathe despite Nick’s tight embrace, managing to wriggle her head out on top of his shoulder to gulp down a few refreshing breaths of air. She swore she could feel the fox’s body heaving a bit, trembling ever so slightly…could he be crying? She didn’t want to think about it, considering that just entertaining such a thought would spur a similar reaction in her. She answered his hug with her own, stepping away once he released her and preoccupied himself with rubbing the spot that had been unreachable for so long, probably longer than he could remember.

“Why now, why like this? I don’t –?”

“This will just have to be the beginning,” Judy replied, giving him a gentle smile. “You’ve worked so hard to create this place, to keep yourself out of trouble, even when the trouble wasn’t your fault. I’m sure predators all over the city have been living similar lives, doing their best to get by, wishing other animals would see them for who they really are. I joined the ZPD to serve and protect all of the creatures that inhabit Zootopia. Everything that’s happened today…meeting you, you’ve helped me realize just how poorly I’ve been doing that job.”

“I…I don’t know what to say –” Nick continued, the sincerity in his tone almost enough to push Judy to tears again. He approached with open arms, intending to give her another wholehearted, thankful hug. As she opened her arms to receive it, her face radiating a similarly sincere smile, the scene devolved into unexpected chaos.

Windows were shattered and doors were bust down as officers from the ZPD flooded the lobby, pinning Nick to the ground and shoving Judy to the side. The breath left her chest as she tried to make herself heard over the crowd, scrambling to break through the bodies and reach Nick. She could already see that he had been muzzled, re-collared, bound, and was being drug out of the building towards one of the many squad cars stationed outside. She couldn’t believe what was happening; surely this scene was only a horrible nightmare, all she had to do was wake up!

“Oh, so this is how it’s going to be?” she heard Nick snarl, the sounds of electrical interference and the wires of his muzzle distorting his callous words. “This is how it was always supposed to be, huh? What was this, some sort of set up? You follow me here, take that contraption off of me, all the while your pals back at the ZPD are on their way, ready to cage up another dangerous, rogue predator? All of you make me sick!”

“No, no Nick, I swear! I didn’t know about this! I didn’t –!” Judy’s desperate words were lost in the noises the other officers made as they swept the scene, more of them crowding the area as their squad cars gathered around outside. She persisted in her struggle to make it to the detained fox, but there was too much commotion; by the time she succeeded in forcing her way outside he had already been driven off. “Officer Reed, what is the meaning of this? What is going on?”

“Got an alert about a pred breaking collar protocol, cheating the system,” the officer answered simply. “Can’t believe you didn’t call it in first, Hopps. Looks like if we hadn’t got here in time, you’d have been dead meat, considering he was about to attack.”

“What? No!” Judy pleaded, and the look in Reed’s eyes clearly indicated her lack of understanding. “No, you don’t understand! I’m the one who removed his collar, it was a sanctioned removal –”

“Breaking protocol on duty? You better make sure the Chief doesn’t catch wind of that,” Reed warned, a voice on the other end of her walky-talky calling her back to the station. “If that really is the case, though, and you don’t want your furry friend there getting life behind bars or worse, I’d get back to the station ASAP.”

Without another word, Judy hardened her resolve and plotted the fastest route back to the precinct. Reed was right…the rabbit couldn’t believe how stupid she had been! If only her thinking had been more rational, or better yet, if only her thinking had been more rational from the _start_. Maybe she wouldn’t have gone along perpetuating such backwards treatment of predators for so long. Maybe she could have made it so that Nick never had to come across such a bad situation in the first place. Maybe she could have really made Zootopia a better place, the kind of place she wanted to preserve and protect when she initially joined the force.

“Don’t worry Nick, I’m coming,” she vowed as she rushed back to the station, her heart beating like a jackhammer. “I’m not going to let you be another victim of the system. I’m gonna make things right this time. I promise.”


End file.
